


The Spirit and her Blade

by JennaTalbot



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: F/F, dunej, originally this was meant to be gayer but im happy with how it turned out regardless, pirate!Inej, siren!Dunyasha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:21:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23726002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JennaTalbot/pseuds/JennaTalbot
Summary: Inej has finally fulfilled her goal of sailing the seas to hunt down slaver ships, and has gathered an all female crew to back her. Danger sails the seas, but danger lives below the waves as well. When Inej's happens upon a slaver ship in the middle of siren infested waters, who will win?
Relationships: Dunyasha Lazareva/Inej Ghafa
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	The Spirit and her Blade

Dunyasha cut through the wake, hissing under her breath. She beat her pearl-white tail faster, making good time as she sliced the water around her. There was a rumor rustling through the seabed, a rumor of a ship...

_There._

This was the third time this month that _The Wraith_ had sailed through her waters, her territory. With its purple sails, and hull that seemed to be tinted black, Captain Ghafa’s ship was unmistakable, even from a distance. 

Dunyasha knew her territory was of little value to a sailor—the ice cold water was filled with rocky shoals and coral beds that made sailing dangerous for a human, and hunting nearly impossible for a siren. It was her misfortune to be trapped here, after a deadly confrontation with her mother. The misfortune wasn’t in her mother’s death, but in the fact that Dunyasha was caught. For her failures, the True King refused to let her remain in the kingdom. 

She was banished, only afforded one small patch of ocean her father didn’t want, where he figured she would go to die. But Dunyasha had survived, and had grown shrewd during her forced isolation. 

And now, the one bit of sea she could call home was being threatened, by a human no less. Dunyasha gnashed her pointed teeth.She felt her heartbeat speed up at the thought of this human who had become a familiar presence in her life, and attributed it to the anticipation of chasing a human out of her waters. 

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

A shriek resounded through the air, echoing off the waves. Mazie’s sword flashed overhead as she brought it down with deadly precision. A thud sounded, as the top half of the orange the young girl was using for target practice landed on the deck. 

“Quit wasting all of the good fruit,” one of the older crew members called to her, snatching up the top half of the orange and biting down on it.

“Would you rather I practice with your head?” Mazie retorted. 

A chuckle emanated from behind the orange. “A feisty one, aren’t you? You’ll fit in well here. But next time you attack, maybe don’t do it with enough noise to alert the Drüskelle to our presence.”

A few snickers resounded around the deck, as Mazie pouted. 

“All right, Captain?”

Inej looked over at her first mate, Corie. Her skin was dark as night, with a tangled mass of black hair to match. A scarf the same orange as a jurda flower was pulled tight around her head as a headband to keep it out of her face. 

“All good,” Inej replied with a nod, looking back down to the lower deck where Mazie was now sparring with the crew. She was slow and clumsy in her footwork, but Inej saw promise in her tiny frame, and smiled wryly at the thought of another young girl who had been forced to learn how to fight at a young age. 

Inej ran her fingers along the hilt of her own rapier, a gesture that had become comforting in its familiarity. She missed her knives dearly, and still kept two of them—Alina and Lizabeta—on her person at all times. The rest stayed tucked away in her cabin where the salty sea air couldn’t get to them. 

“You know,” Corie said. “This is the third time this month we’ve run this route. You rarely sail the same path twice, let alone twice in a row, but we’ve been through here often enough that it’s well-worn now. Is something wrong?”

Inej hummed. She was prepared for this question, but not this soon. Instead, she answered with the only truth she had. “I’m not sure.I don’t think so.”

Corie’s gaze lingered on Inej for a moment. “This route is infamous for being dangerous. There’s not likely to be many slavers running in these waters. Too many shoals. And sirens.”

“Just one,” Inej said quietly.

“What?”

Inej sighed. “Nothing. Has anyone else said anything yet?”

Corie shook her head. “If they have, they’re keeping quiet about it.” She then turned to look at Inej. “They trust you, Captain. We all do.” 

And with that, she melted away in a way that made the girl once called the Wraith proud.

Alone, Inej huffed another sigh. She was thankful that Corie was the only one to ask about their route. As the Captain, it wasn’t like the crew to question her choices, but Inej never hesitated to listen to criticism from any of the girls on her ship. This was an unusual decision for the infamous Captain Ghafa, Spirit of the Sea, and she expected the curiosity of her crew. 

Her gaze roved out over the waves. She had told Corie the truth—Inej had made a promise when she started this venture to never lie to her girls—but she hadn’t given the entire truth either. 

The entire truth was a vague, complicated monster that Inej herself couldn’t figure out. 

As Corie had pointed out, this strip of the True Sea was treacherous. The waters were cold as ice, and filled with rocks that lurked just under the surface, waiting to destroy whatever unlucky ship got too close. A myriad of shipwrecks lay under the waves, hidden from view by the dark waters. Sailing here, one could feel the souls of the lost sailors and ships lingering in the air. 

And the sirens. 

The frigid waters couldn’t claim credit for all of the lives lost here. Sirens were a deadly species, moreso because they didn’t seem to have a geographical range. Sirens ruled the entire True Sea, from the tropical waters near Novyi Zem to the wintry waters surrounding Fjerda. 

Inej had thought she was prepared for anything after living in Ketterdam, but she was unprepared for the sheer brutality of the sirens. 

They were designed to kill. 

In the stories, sirens were beautiful fishlike maidens that lured male sailors to their deaths. In reality, sirens did resemble humans—but only in the way that made humans terrible. They were made of long limbs; shark-like smiles accompanied by razor sharp teeth. Facial expressions didn’t come naturally to sirens, so instead, they mirrored sailors that they spied upon before killing. The disconnect between emotion and expression was distinctly unsettling, and a slight predatory air was always present in their every move.

And they weren’t picky about their prey. A siren was just as likely to wreak havoc on one ship as the next, and the gender of their target was of no concern to them. It meant that _The Wraith_ , as an all female ship, still had to be on guard at all times.

Inej watched her crew buzzing around the deck. On the outside, they appeared relaxed, enjoying the sun despite the chilly temperatures. But Inej knew her crew, and knew that they could be ready to face anything at a moment’s notice. 

“Ship, ho!” A voice cried over the wind. 

“It’s “sail, ho!”,’ a second voice cried back.

Inej’s head snapped up to the crow’s nest, where Erhi was pointing off the port bow of the ship. In a flash, Inej scaled the rigging to join her. The small basket wasn’t enough to hold both of them, so Inej looped her foot around one of the thick braided ropes and crouched next to where Erhi was standing.

“What do we think it is?” She asked the young Shu girl, absentmindedly running her fingers along the area of her forearm where her Menagerie tattoo had once been; where her Dregs tattoo should have been. 

“I can’t tell yet, Captain,” Erhi responded. “From here, it doesn’t look like it’s flying any flags. We’ll have to get closer before I can see.”

Inej nodded. “They might not have a flag up right now, and depending on what they see us fly, they’ll raise whichever flag will seem the least suspicious. It’s not foolproof, but that’s a good sign of a slaver ship.”

The young girl nodded furiously, and Inej reached out to ruffle her black hair. “Great job, keep an eye on the ship and call out if anything changes.”  
  
“Aye, aye, Captain!”

Inej called for the Kerch flag to be raised as she climbed down. It gave her a strong sense of pride to be flying it, despite the flood of homesickness it brought along as well. The rich purple of the flag would signal Kerch’s neutrality to passing ships, a trick she had used on many occasions to lure a slave ship into a false sense of security. 

Over the next hour, _The Wraith_ sailed steadily closer to the other ship, dodging through the rocky outcroppings that made progress slower than Inej would have liked. Once a ship was in sight, the thought of the enslaved children waiting onboard was enough to drive Inej into a frenzy, and she could never hold still for more than a few moments. Everything in her Suli heritage told her to slow down and be patient, but the thought of leaving anyone in the hands of slavers for even a second longer than necessary was intolerable. 

Finally, Erhi called down that a flag had finally been raised—another Kerch flag. Inej knew no real Kerch ship would have a reason to sail through these waters. Her sources in Ketterdam informed her that trade had been booming with the Southern Colonies lately, making trips to the north both dangerous and unprofitable, a level of risk the Kerch would never stand for. 

Inej grimaced, running her hand along the hilt of her rapier again. She never enjoyed coming across a slave ship, but she did what needed to be done to further rid the world of vermin.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dunyasha followed the ships, cautiously. There were now two ships in her territory, which was curious. It was rare enough that she encountered one, although in the past year, it had become more frequent. 

The hull of the familiar dark ship sliced through the water, expertly avoiding the hazardous rocks. The other ship seemed to be having a more difficult time; only its smaller size kept it from running aground on more than one occasion.

Dunyasha watched, lurking below. The dark ship was gaining on its smaller counterpart, she could tell that much. She had heard tales, spread through the sea creatures, of the fearsome Captain Ghafa, a human who turned on her own kind and slaughtered them when given the chance. Dunyasha had always been curious about this Ghafa, and what could have made her lose track of her alliances. 

If given the chance, Dunyasha would gladly slay any siren that had the misfortune of crossing her path, so Ghafa felt like a kindred spirit of sorts. An enemy still, but a thread that they had in common. 

She swum lazily under the waves as the dark ship sliced through the water, moving parallel to the other. Suddenly, she jolted as a fierce vibration resonated through the water. Dunyasha knew that vibration.

_Cannons._

Interest piqued now, Dunyasha beat her powerful tail until she was close enough to the ships that the vibrations from the canonfire rattled her every bone down to her soul. 

The sea around her was a thrum of vibrations as the smaller ship began returning canon fire. But as quickly as it started, it stopped. The sea returned to silence. Dunyasha swam closer to the surface, more than curious as to what was happening. 

She was mere feet away from breaking through the waves when the first body appeared. The shock of it startled Dunyasha, driving her downwards and back into the depths. But she could see the blood gushing from the man and knew he was as good as dead, if he wasn’t already. 

A second body crashed through the waves and began sinking, this one clearly still alive. Dunyasha knew he didn’t stand a chance. Especially once the sharks began to arrive. 

With a morbid curiosity, she rose back to the surface, dodging the debris that plummeted downwards. She poked her head above the surface of the water, and it was like removing the veil. The muffled sounds that she heard while underwater were magnified, deafening. 

Dunyasha was witnessing a full on battle. Swords were drawn, clashing together. Gunshots were sounding, echoing through the air. Everything was hazy from the canon smoke, and it was difficult to see. 

“Captain!” 

Dunyasha turned her head in time to see a figure fall from one of the ships. 

“Captain Ghafa!” A young voice pierced through the fighting. 

Adrenaline spiked through Dunyasha, and she dove. This would be her chance to see the feared human, the one spoken of with a tone of awe by the sea life that made a home in Dunyasha’s pathetic domain. 

With two powerful strokes of her tail, she made it to where the figure was sinking slowly. 

Dunyasha pulled up short and cocked her head. 

This Ghafa looked just like any other human—her hair billowing around her and her dark skin paling by the second. In a sense, Dunyasha was almost disappointed. She had expected more. She let herself begin to drift backwards. If these humans wanted to fight amongst themselves, at least she would have a good meal tonight, and for the next few days. The seas were cold enough here to preserve a body for some time. 

She was about to turn her back in disgust when a flash caught her eye. A blade, strapped to Ghafa’s ankle. It was shiny, and it didn’t look like the pirate was going to have any further use for it anyways. With a wicked grin, Dunyasha reached out to grab it.

Ghafa’s eyes flew open, and her leg kicked out with a startling amount of force, catching Dunyasha in the chest. She bared her fangs and let out a long hiss, as Ghafa drew the dagger and began swimming towards the surface. 

Dunyasha hissed again and struck, slicing her razor sharp nails down Ghafa’s thigh. Blood plumed out of the wound, and Dunyasha flashed her teeth in a hideous smile. A second later, the smile fell from her face as the knife she had been admiring only seconds ago slashed downwards at her, barely missing her neck.

She let out a shriek as Ghafa kicked her again and began pushing her way up to the surface. Dunyasha was momentarily dazed from the force of the kick, but propelled herself up and grabbed onto both of Ghafa’s ankles just as the girl broke the surface, dragging them both down. 

There was a brief struggle in which Dunyasha lost track of which way was up and which way was down. She grabbed for the hand that held the knife, but missed. Suddenly, pain flared up her arm as Ghafa managed to sink the knife in and pull, leaving a gash down Dunyasha’s entire forearm. 

As her blood pooled out into the water, spreading slowly, Dunyasha froze. For the first time, she really looked at this human called Ghafa. Her dark eyes were wide, wary of the siren’s next attack. Even underwater, rapidly running out of air, Dunyasha could tell that Ghafa was an expert with a blade, and a worthy opponent. Dunyasha had never needed to wield a knife; her nails and teeth were sharper than any Fabrikator steel could have been.

Before, Dunyasha felt a connection with Ghafa for her willingness to betray her own species. Now, she saw herself in Ghafa’s fighting spirit, and her unfaltering bravery in the face of certain death. Her curiosity of this human returned, stronger than before.

With a speed so great that none would have seen it coming, Dunyasha wrapped her arms around Ghafa, holding tight so there wasn’t room for the knife to be swung her way. She beat her tail hard, propelling them both out of the water and onto the dark ship. In the next instant, Dunyasha recoiled against the unfamiliar feel of solid wood underneath her. She used the momentum of her leap to drop Ghafa and propel herself off the other side of the ship, relishing the grip of the icy cold water around her once again. 

She dove deep, deep enough that she could no longer see the shadows of the ships overhead. There, she hissed as she felt her wound begin to stitch itself closed. 

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

“Hello, if you’re out there,” Inej called into the dark. She was alone—finally. The battle had gone as well as could be expected; as well as any battle could go. Inej only lost two girls this time, and had been miraculously spared herself. She grimaced as she thought the world ‘only’; as if any loss of life was acceptable. 

But they had saved twenty-four more children, who were now being cared for belowdecks by Inej’s first mate and some of her more senior crew.

Losing crewmembers never got easier, and Inej imagined that it never would. Knowing that those girls chose to die in order to help save children, other victims like themselves, didn’t make the truth easier to swallow. 

Instead of contemplating how much she felt like a failure, Inej tipped her head back against the rail and closed her eyes. 

“I don’t know if you can hear me, but if you can, I’d like to thank you. I don’t know why, but I do know that you saved me today. I had made my peace with the Saints, but they must believe my work here isn’t done yet. I think I’m—we, my crew and I—are doing good work here. We’re ridding the world of scum and filth who think stealing children from their homes, carting them across the sea, and selling them like animals for slaughter is a profitable way of life.”

Inej paused, sighing. 

“The world is a cruel place, and I just want to help reverse some of the darkness.”

As she spoke, a flash of red appeared above the surface of the waves. Inej’s eyes were still closed, so she didn’t notice. 

“We all deserve a chance. Some of us have that chance torn from us. My mission is to give it back, so that those who are destined for a better life can have the opportunity to live it.” She smiled slightly. “Not even the gods will deny this necessity.”

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

_Legend has it that at one time, the dangers of the sea were contained to the straits of Fjerda. But the wrath of a woman scorned cannot be harnessed so easily. The stories tell of a dark ship that roves the seas in search of her next victim, accompanied by her own monstrous consort. A human and a siren, allied together to rid the world of those who do harm. The purple flag of Kerch for so long has symbolized neutrality and safety, but now, ships flee at the sight. For if one sees a purple flag, flown from a dark ship: beware. The feared Spirit of the Sea and her fiery White Blade_ _know no bounds, and if their sights land on you, it is best you prepare to meet your maker._

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the @sixofcrowsnet heist: AU on tumblr! A big shoutout to Marisa (@kuweiyulbo) for her fantastic edit that inspired this fic. This it the first thing I've managed to write in ages, so comments and kudos will be loved and cherished. Thanks for reading!


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